UN forum spotlights digital trade facilitation measures

New Delhi (ESCAP news) – The 9th Asia-Pacific Trade
Facilitation Forum (APTFF) closed in New Delhi, India today
with a strong focus on how digital and sustainable trade
facilitation measures and practices can bring prosperity for
the region.

Organized by the United Nations
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
(ESCAP) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), in
collaboration with the Ministry of Commerce, India and
Confederation of Indian Industry, the Forum discussed
results of a new Global Survey on the progress made
by countries in implementing trade facilitation measures and
how to address remaining challenges in this area.

Developed economies aside, the 2019 UN Survey results
confirm leadership of several Asian developing countries in
digital trade facilitation implementation, notably Republic
of Korea and China in East Asia; Singapore, Malaysia and
Thailand in South East Asia; Azerbaijan and the Russian
Federation in North and Central Asia; and India in South
Asia. All 46 Asia-Pacific countries in the Survey made
significant progress in making trade easier and more
transparent over the past two years, with countries in North
and Central Asia, in particular Kazakhstan, making most
progress. Cambodia was the best performing among the least
developed country (LDC) included in the Survey. Pacific
Small Island Developing States are lagging behind as they
face particularly difficult implementation constraints.

Over 270 participants from more than 30 countries at the
biennial Forum shared experiences and perspectives on
different aspects of trade facilitation for sustainable
development, including trade finance, cross-border
ecommerce, paperless trade and innovative applications of
emerging technologies.

“Amidst global trade
tensions, regional cooperation to cut red tape and automate
trade procedures is more important than ever. Making trade
easier and faster at lower costs by expanding cross-border
trade digitalization and the simplification of international
trade procedures, will help all firms in the Asia-Pacific
region, particularly Small and Medium Enterprises,” said
United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive
Secretary of ESCAP Ms. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana in her
opening remarks.

At the opening, India’s Minister
of Commerce and Industry and Railways Mr. Piyush Goyal
highlighted that the Government is working proactively to
introduce a plethora of reforms including digitization of
trade procedures as well as ensuring improvements in the
trading environment with reduced turnaround time and
transaction costs.

The joint Asia-Pacific Trade Facilitation Report
2019launched by ESCAP and ADB at the Forum noted
that aiming for full digital implementation of the WTO Trade
Facilitation Agreement and enabling seamless electronic
exchange of trade data across-border could cut transaction
costs for the region by nearly 17 per cent. To accelerate
progress in this area, all countries were encouraged to
complete their accession to the Framework Agreement on
Facilitation of Cross-border Paperless Trade in Asia and the
Pacific.

The ESCAP-ADB report also highlighted the
need to strengthen linkages between trade facilitation and
trade finance, with financial technologies such as
blockchain and artificial intelligence to be used to enhance
the efficiency and availability of trade finance, especially
for SMEs in the region.

“There is an enormous
untapped potential in the rapidly evolving digital
technologies. Emerging new technologies can help address
long-standing issues of high transaction and processing
costs, while mitigating the huge trade finance gap,” said
ADB Vice-President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable
Development, Mr. Bambang Susantono.

Going forward,
the Forum noted the importance of better addressing the
needs of SMEs and other more vulnerable groups such as women
and those working in the agricultural sector, noting that
only very few countries in the region have customized trade
facilitation measures to support these groups so far.

Three initiatives were awarded APTFF Trade Facilitation
Innovation Awards this year. The International Plant
Protection Convention was awarded for its work on the
Generic ePhyto National System (GeNS), PSA International Ltd
and Global eTrade Services (GeTS) for enhancing digital
connectivity for China-ASEAN trade, and Tuticorin CFS
Association for its CoDEx: Container Digital Exchange.

ESCAP and IBM also signed an MoU on the sidelines of the
Forum to conduct studies on how frontier technologies can be
harnessed to make trade more sustainable and inclusive. This
includes collaboration on TINA, a new online
decision-support tool for trade negotiators from developing
countries.

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